Reference

Dictionaries | Encyclopedias | Maps | Thesaurus | Quotations | Miscellaneous

Almanacs ~ An annual publication including facts, calendars, weather forecasts, astronomical information, tide tables, and other related tabular information.

  • Old Farmer's Almanac~provides long-range weather forecasts along with information for home and garden, astronomy, natural cures and cooking.
  • World Factbook~US government profiles of countries and territories around the world. Information on geography, people, government, transportation, economy, communications.
  • Census Information~straight from the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • InfoPlease~divides information into searchable sub-groups.

Dictionaries ~ A reference source containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them.
  • Reverso ~ A foreign language dictionary and online translator for several dozen languages.
  • Merriam Webster Dictionary~an online version of the popular print dictionary.
  • Dictionary.com~cluttered with ads, but a good, basic online dictionary with plenty of extras like "Word of the Day," crosswords, etc.
  • Visual Dictionary~an online graphical dictionary. Shows how words are connected...like a color coded mind map.
  • MedLine Plus~online medical dictionary produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
  • RhymeZone ~ This rhyming dictionary finds rhymes to searched words and also allows searches for definitions, synonyms, homophones, similar-sounding words, consonant matches, similar spellings, related words, and phrases.
  • Webopedia~A dictionary of computer terms and Internet technology definitions.

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Encyclopedias ~ A comprehensive reference work containing articles on a wide range of subjects or on numerous aspects of a particular field, usually in alphabetical order.

  • WorldBook Online~ The subscription-based online version of World Book Online. Free to HHS students! Includes an extensive index of articles, maps, images, and more. Also has various special features such as a Citation Generator and and a Timeline Builder. This is a subscription database and you'll need our HHS password and logon ID in order to use it (stop by the library for details).
  • Wikipedia~online encyclopedia. Users should keep in mind that this is a wiki (meaning that anyone can add or edit entries). This is a great place to start, but be sure to check the sources at the bottom of the article to make sure the research is solid.

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Maps ~ a visual representation of geographic features.

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Thesaurus ~ A list of every important term (single-word or multi-word) in a given domain of knowledge; a set of related terms for each term in the list. Synonyms!
Thesaurus.com~useful, but lots of ads.

Quotations ~ A fragment of a human expression that is being referred to by somebody else.

  • Bartleby.com~ click on the drop down box marked "Reference" to get a choice of at least 3 different quote books.
  • Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs ~ "This tenth edition of 1919 contains over 11,000 searchable quotations and was the first new edition of John Bartlett’s corpus to be published after his death in 1905—the new editor, however, choosing more to supplement than revise the work of the first name in quotations."
  • Quoteland.com~ Quotations by Topic, Literary Quotations, Humorous Quotations, Random Quotations, How to Identify a Quote, Discussion Groups ["Who Said It?" and "I Need A Quote!"], a FAQ, and Internet Resources.
  • Quote World~ A collection of close to 14,000 quotations that can be searched by title, author, quote, or exact words.


Miscellaneous

  • Currency Converter~converts money using foreign exchange rates calculator.
  • Convert Me~ includes all kinds of measurement conversions including temperature, distance and length, mass and weight, cooking conversions, and more
  • Conversion Tools~Automatically converts length/distance, weight/mass, area, volume, temperature, time, and cooking measurements.
  • Acronym Finder~ "Contains more than 3 million acronyms and abbreviations, including: most common abbreviations, information technology, military, government, science, medicine, engineering, organizations, schools, colleges, business, finance, accounting, popular culture, slang, chat and many more."
This page last updated on Sep 30, 2011 1:01 pm